Dogged by dismal sales of its compact premium hatchback Jazz, Honda Siel Car India on Thursday relaunched it at lower price point, slashing it by R1.75 lakh to R5.65 lakh on the base variant. The price drop of Jazz follows the drop in the prices of the Honda City, which also happened recently. The Jazz Select coming in at R5.75 lakh and the top-level Jazz X at R6.06 lakh, all prices ex-showroom, Delhi. Jazz? high-end version currently touches R7.4 lakh.

With minor facelifts both in exterior and interiors and an attractive price, the car has posed a huge competition to the new Maruti Swift launched at R4.64 lakh (base price) on Wednesday.

The company is also gearing itself to take on the onslaught of Hyundai?s i20 and VW?s Polo in the hatch segment with Toyota Etios Liva as new entrant. Both are clocking decent numbers.

Seki Inaba, director marketing, Honda Siel Cars India, said, ?During the past couple of years, HSCI has focused a lot on localisation and cost down activities for our volume models through the R&D function in India. The new Jazz with its attractive pricing will surely appeal to the customers and expand on customer base of the Jazz.?

The relaunch of Jazz at cheap price also bears testimony to the fact the company is pressing hard to salvage the numbers. Jazz sales dropped drastically to 275 units in July 2011 against 574 last year. Honda has also had trying times selling its premium petrol engine SUV CRV after the market got swamped by diesel beasts like Fortuner and Endeavor, customer preference started shifting for diesel cars because of obvious reasons. CR-V?s sales on an average is below 150 each month. Fortuner sold a whopping 1060 in July.

Analysts feel that the upcoming Brio (small car) launch in October has the potential to turn its fortunes in India as has been in the case of Honda City , which is the largest selling sedan in the R8-10 lakh segment.

Before the relaunch of Jazz, the company was offering huge cash discounts on the car and R1 premium on insurance. However, that too failed to turn the customer eyeballs.

Major car manufacturers in the Indian auto industry are enticing prospective customers by offering them discounts and special offers.

Hyundai has been sanctioning loans for Santro and i10 at an all time low interest rate of 5.99% for a three year period. VW too is offering loans to prospective buyers at 6.99% on purchase of a Vento. Speaking on the occasion, Neeraj Garg of Volkswagen said that many buyers are opting for this scheme and sales are predicted to go up by 30 to 40%. Fiat too is trying its best to attract customers for their petrol variant of Linea and Punto. Gift vouchers, free fuel for a period of one year and a 50 month roadside assistance are all innovative schemes which auto manufacturers are thinking up to increase their sales figures.